Although its prosperous lifespan lasted less than a hundred years, Masada holds a surpassing symbolic value of Jewish pride and resolve due to the circumstances of its demise in 73 CE. The Roman legions laid siege to the seemingly impregnable fortress where a few thousand members of the Jewish revolt…
The Nabatean Kingdom, with its capital in Petra in Jordan, was a major trading power in the Levant from about the 3rd century BCE until the 4th century CE (the last few under the largely benevolent yoke of the Roman Empire). The Nabateans carried their incense trade to the Mediterranean…
Trips to a number of West Bank destinations are fairly easy to arrange through a variety of travel channels while touring Israel. Given the number of holy Christian sites in the region, there is daily a steady stream of visitors that sustain a significant percentage of West Bank’s GDP. My…
I only took three overseas trips in the year of 2019, but the nature of those trips made the year remarkably fulfilling. I visited 8 different countries – Portugal, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Turkey, Israel, Palestinian Territories, Jordan – and all were first-time visits. To be fair, half of those were…
A day and a half was my itinerary allotment to see Jerusalem’s Old City. That appears to be enough to see all of the major points of interest, although in a city with such wealth of historical context, you will feel like you rushed through some of the sights no…
Anyone who knows anything about the world history cannot be surprised that Israel abounds with archaeological sites of note. Eastern Mediterranean lands have been settled by various civilizations across different eras, and they all left reminders of their heyday. In many instances, those reminders are stacked upon each other in…
I spent portions of three different days in the northern part of Israel historically known as Galilee. Although I visited a number of towns, sights, and national parks, that only scratched the surface. This is the area that is incredibly picturesque and heavy on history and archaeology, as well as…
Necropolis of Bet She’arim is a significant monument of Jewish history, but I suspect only a dedicated WH chaser would include it on an itinerary when visiting Israel for the first time. This is not a must-see but it has to be said that it is one of just a…
For reasons that were not exactly in my control, my original itinerary for the Israel trip underwent a few last-minute sequencing changes. I ended up with a bit more driving between the north of the country and Tel Aviv than I had initially anticipated. On the other hand, I got…
The Bauhaus Movement of the first half of the 20th century left an indelible mark on Tel Aviv, as German and other European émigré artists applied the concepts of the modernist school during the growth of the young metropolis from 1933 onward. There are over four thousand examples of that…
Tel Aviv was my base for the entirety of my two-week stay in Israel. In between day-trips, I gave myself one full day of dedicated exploration of the city and two more days for taking it slow and easy. From the tourist point of view, that is more than enough…
My journey to Israel started with a layover in Istanbul. I’ve never been to the Turkish capital and decided to use the opportunity of a connecting flight to plug that gap on my travel résumé, if only a little. A 9-hour interval from the arrival of the incoming flight to…
My last trip of 2019 was epic by any measure. I spent close to two weeks in Israel for the very first time in my life. Along the way, I also visited Istanbul, explored a bit of south of Jordan, and set foot in the West Bank, adding 4 more…
You would have to go all the way back to mid-January for my last post not related to overseas travel, and even that was an output of a multi-day trip. Appearances notwithstanding, we do occasionally get out and about for short trips in our local area. Here is a recap…
On our last day of the Croatian itinerary, we rented a boat for a tour of Elafiti islands, off the Adriatic coast north of Dubrovnik. We opted for a traditional Dalmatian boat, which afforded a private day-long arrangement at reasonable cost. The downside of that was the low speed at…
From Dubrovnik in Croatia it takes less than an hour of driving to the Bay of Kotor in Montenegro, which is technically at the southern edge of the Dalmatian Coast. Or, should take, if Montenegro ever joins the EU and the border controls are relaxed; nowadays, crossing the border on…
The second part of our Croatian itinerary had Dubrovnik as the base. Similarly to Split, we gave ourselves only one full day for exploration of Dubrovnik proper but returned every evening for a meal and a stroll, so managed to acquire a certain level of familiarity with the town. Objectively,…
My latest travel itineraries have been unapologetically influenced by the desire to visit as many World Heritage sites as I come near. In the instances of Portugal or the Dalmatian Coast, that aligned reasonably well with the notion of a typical first-time tour since the most popular and interesting destinations…
In a not widely known quirk of geography, a tiny sliver of the Dalmatian Coast belongs to Bosnia and Herzegovina, making it impossible to travel by land between Split and Dubrovnik without entering and then quickly exiting Bosnian territory. The border checks are comparatively relaxed on this stretch, never creating…
Krka National Park was not in our original plans. Just like the vast majority of first-time visitors to Croatia, we instead planned on visiting the much more famous Plitvice National Park (even bought tickets online in advance). The latter, however, is two-and-a-half-hour drive away from Split, where we made our…